


A Journey to Lausanne

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Journey, M/M, Memories of Reichenbach, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 08:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15311292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: Watson takes a journey to Lausanne in the shadow of another Switzerland trip. Written for JWP #15 over on Watson's Woes.





	A Journey to Lausanne

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Introspective and schmoopy in turns. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.  
> Author's Notes: Written for the following prompt: Take a Break.

My patient list dwindled greatly after I sold my practice in ’94, but a small percentage still preferred my professional services whenever I could provide them. Holmes’ cases – our cases, for he shared them with me as we shared every aspect of our lives after his return – occupied most of my time, but I still managed semi-regular house visits as well as the occasional urgent call.   
  
A rather different request came my way some months after my return to Baker Street. I had referred Mr Laurence to a specialist eight months previous, but he had continued to request my attendance as his condition fluctuated. Now the London man had referred him to a colleague in Lausanne, but Mr Laurence did not feel equal to such a long journey alone. He wanted me to accompany him, and proposed not only paying for my tickets and my time, but also for a week’s stay in a moderately famous resort before I faced the return journey.  
  
“I can afford it,” he said bluntly, when I would have protested such generosity as unnecessary. “And you’re as worthy a cause as any. I don’t doubt you could do with a week’s rest.”  
  
“Of course you will go,” Holmes said when I mentioned it to him that evening. “You could hardly do otherwise. And you will enjoy Lausanne; it is quite beautiful.”  
  
I did not ask him how he knew this. I could guess quite well, and those three years of absence were not something to be touched on lightly, or at all.   
  
The journey was as easy as money could make it. It bore little resemblance to the harried, makeshift trip Holmes and I had undertaken to Switzerland, and yet the memories of that time haunted every mile. Between the needs of my patient and the thoughts that chased me as relentlessly as Moriarty had pursued us, I did not get much sleep.  
  
“Thank you, Doctor Watson. I could not have asked for better care, or a better companion,” Mr Laurence told me when I safely delivered him to the specialist’s door. “But you’ve worn yourself to a frazzle doing it. Now please, go enjoy some care yourself, before you too wind up needing a doctor.”  
  
I felt the truth of his words, but I did not want to heed them. I wanted London, and Holmes, not Lausanne, no matter how beautiful it might be. I needed the reassurance of the familiar, not novelty, to soothe the remembered feelings and echoing fears of that time.  
  
The resort concierge greeted me with a smile, and when I gave my name, a telegram form.  
  
WATSON STOP LONDON QUIET STOP LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF LAUSANNE STOP THOROUGH SKETCH MIGHT AID DESCRIPTIONS IN FUTURE CASES STOP SH FINAL STOP  
  
I could not repress a smile. Although it would not be evident to anyone but myself, that short telegram was as plain a statement of missing me, and thinking about me, as I was ever likely to receive from Holmes in any form. And the promise of writing about future cases… Well. I knew a declaration of true attachment when I read one.  
  
I requested extra writing-paper for my room. I had a landscape to record, among other things.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 15, 2018


End file.
